DD233071A5 - TOOTHBRUSH - Google Patents

Abstract

In a toothbrush with a body providing a brush head and a handle and bristles fastened to the brush head, a hygienic, bacteria-avoiding construction is obtained in that the body and bristles are made of the same material and are welded to one another so that the brush head is free of empty space. Further, with this construction a larger number of bristles can be applied to achieve a better cleaning and massaging effect and the dimensions of the brush head can be reduced.

Description

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toothbrush

Field of application of the invention

The invention relates to a toothbrush with a brush head and a handle forming body made of plastic and bristles attached to the brush head made of plastic.

Characteristic of the known technical solutions

Toothbrushes have hardly changed in their structural design for decades. Changes have been made only in the technological field by replacing the wood previously used for the brush head and handle and the natural bristles used for the cutlery with plastic. The production technology has remained largely unchanged by the brush head is provided with holes, in each of which a bundle of bristles by means of metal platelets, metal wire or the like. is attached. In particular, polyamide plastics, e.g. Polyamide 6.12 proven, since this material in terms of hardness, Wiederaufrichtvermögen and regenerability of the requirements placed on a good toothbrush most satisfies. This material has a relatively low water absorption capacity, so that the toothbrush dries quickly. This, in turn, is important because a dry bristle performs better in terms of stiffness, repellency, etc. than a wet bristle. Nevertheless, a toothbrush does not dry out or only insufficiently at usual intervals of use of about 12 hours, wherein the moisture keeps longer, especially in the attachment area of the bristles in the brush head. This mangei is the more likely, the closer the bristles are and the larger the number of

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Bristles per unit area is. However, as the cleaning and massaging effect increases with the number of bristles per unit area, this desirable increase in utility is always paid for by the detrimental effect of slower drying.

The longer moisture retention has the further disadvantageous effect of toothbrushes that the bacteria collecting anyway anyway primarily in the attachment area between the bristles and bristle head find a favorable population climate and thus lead to a hygienic problem, which plays a particularly important role in the oral application here, without the necessary amount of attention being paid to him so far -

Object of the invention

The aim of the invention is to provide a toothbrush which is easy to produce and which has substantially constant service properties even at short intervals of use.

Explanation of the essence of the invention

The invention has the object of providing a toothbrush of the structure described above in such a way that the bristles dry especially faster in the attachment area and a hygienically improved even at short intervals of use toothbrush is obtained.

This object is achieved according to the invention in that the body and bristles are made of the same plastic and are welded together, the brush head being free of cavities.

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Although there are already brushes of various types with welded bristle bundles known, wherein brush body and bristles made of polypropylene. This technology has not heretofore been applied to toothbrushes because polypropylene is not suitable as a material for the bristles. So it could not fertilize the toothbrush production so far with large-area brushes. Rather, in the case of all-plastic toothbrushes, the body made of PP ₁ ABS or SAN was covered with polyamide bristles. The bristles were anchored in blind holes of the brush head by means of wire. Decisive is the achieved with the invention increase the performance characteristics. Practical experiments have shown that an inventively designed toothbrush dries faster than conventional toothbrushes and that a much smaller number of bacteria is found. The reason is that the attachment of the bristles invention requires no more holes in which so far remains of dentifrices and other dirt have set and at the same time have a significant share of moisture retention by the water or moisture by capillary action in particular the holes is held. In the embodiment of the invention, neither the dentifrice, nor dirt or moisture find any cavities in which they can settle. In contrast, in a conventional toothbrush, about 1/3 of the original void volume of the holes is retained even after brushing. Finally, due to the faster drying in the root area of the bristle, this area, which is decisive for the stability and thus for the functional properties, is also brought to its original state more quickly. Since the inventive design is no longer tied to a bunch wise occupy the brush head and not to the arrangement of holes, if necessary, far more bristles, z. B. up to 10,000 compared to previously 3000, are housed on the same surface and it can be arranged in any geometric configuration, the bristles.

Studies on users have also shown that a toothbrush designed according to the invention is perceived not only in terms of care properties, but quite generally as physiologically pleasant. Although the cause of this is not yet fully understood, it is very likely that the metal wires or metal plates used to attach the bundles of bristles with metallic dental materials to refurbished teeth lead to potential formation and / or to an influence on the pH , These assumptions still require clinical confirmation.

It is quite possible to provide bores on the bristle receiving side of the brush head into which individual bundles of bristles are welded, but then the brush head and bristle bundles should be melted on the sides facing each other so far that the holes are completely closed after the bristle bundles have been inserted. Preferably, however, the bristle receiving side of the brush head is flat and the bristles are butt welded.

The inventively possible discontinuation of the bristle holes results in the further advantage of a better stability of the brush head. The hitherto necessary holes lead to a corresponding reduction in cross-section and thus to a lower bending and shear strength of the brush head, so that it is not uncommon for under-dimensioning of the brush head that it breaks off in use just.im range of bristle coverage. This is reinforced by the bristle bundle holding metal anchors, since they exert a wedge effect. These deficiencies are effectively eliminated by the invention, since the brush head has over its entire extent the full cross section and thus a uniform stability over the entire extent. Polyamide 6.12 or polyester have proven to be particularly advantageous materials, although the invention is not limited to these special plastics. It is only important that they have the necessary for a toothbrush use properties.

According to a further preferred embodiment, the bristles are welded by contactless heating on the brush head. This not previously practiced in brushing non-contact heating is necessary in polyamide and other plastics to obtain a perfect weld and to avoid the discoloration, oxidation and thread formation from the melt. Furthermore, the extraction forces for the bristles are increased by this connection, so that there is no risk of tearing even in the post-processing of the free bristle ends for the purpose of rounding off.

The inventive construction also makes it possible that the brush head has a thickness of only 2 to 4 mm compared to previously 5 to 6 mm, so that on the one hand, the use of material in the brush head is lower, on the other hand, the difference in the thickness of the brush head optionally added to the bristle length can be, so that in turn an increase in the range of variation in terms of performance is possible. Instead, the lower height but also a special group of users to benefit, which can not or only insufficiently use conventional toothbrushes due to narrow mouth and / or throat, damage to the temporomandibular joints or other Celebral damage.

The invention also opens up the possibility of attaching more than 3,000 and up to 10,000 bristles to the brush head, whereas conventional toothbrushes have up to 2,000 bristles, special brushes up to 3,000 bristles. D'ese larger number of bristles per unit area isi possible because in the formation of the invention does not have to take into account a certain minimum distance between individual holes and not on a mechanical anchoring of the bristles,

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rather, the bristles can be placed close together. Conversely, with the same number of bristles, the size of the brush head can be considerably reduced so that toothbrushes for toddlers or the above-mentioned user group are obtained, which have at least the same good care and massage effect as conventional adult toothbrushes.

The invention also makes it possible to weld the bristles in bundles or individually. In this case, individual standing bristles can be arranged area-wide or _e on sub-areas of different contour and / or different distribution, z. B. arranged in a planar manner and combined in the manner of bundles bristles together, for example, to take into account the different effects of the individual bristle areas of a toothbrush or the different wear or other wear.

It proves to be advantageous in an embodiment in which the bristles in the handle-distal region of the brush head stand-alone and flat, single standing and strip-shaped in the edge region and in the remaining area in the manner of bundles are summarized.

embodiments

The invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a schematic representation of the Ver

course of operation when welding the BoT's on the brush head;

Figure 2 is a partially sectioned longitudinal view

an embodiment of the finished toothbrush;

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Figure 3 is an enlarged detail view of a bristle bundle in

conventional training;

Figure 4 is an enlarged detail view of a bristle bundle in

inventive training and

Figure 5 is a view of the bristle trim of a toothbrush

under reproduction of the variation width.

FIG. 1 schematically shows a device for producing a toothbrush. Figure 1 reveals the handle 2 with the substantially rectangular brush head 1 in plan view and side view. The brush head 1 and the handle 2 are made of plastic, ζ. B. of polyamide and are supported in a receptacle, not shown. At a distance therefrom are in a carrier 5 a plurality of receptacles 6 for each one of a plurality of bristles 4, z. B. consisting of polyamide existing bundle 3. Each bristle bundle 3 can already be cut to the desired size inserted into the carrier 5 or guided into the carrier 5 as an endless strand (FIG. 1, right). In the embodiment shown, the heating of the receiving side 7 of the brush head 1 and the ends of the bristle bundles 3 by means of a plate-shaped heating element 8, which is arranged between the brush head 1 and the free ends of the bristle bundles 3. The heating element 8 is movable in the direction of the double arrow reproduced on the right, so it can be brought into the space between the brush head 1 and bristle bundle 3 and after melting the ends of the bristle bundles 3 and the receiving side 7 of the brush head 1 again retracted to merge brush head and bristle ends can. In Figure 1, the melting zone at the bristle receiving side 7 is indicated by hatching.

When heating the bristles by driving in the heating element 8, only the free ends of the bristles 4 are melted without contact,

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where they fuse together and form a rounded, lenticular head 9. In this form, the bristle bundles 3 and the brush head 1 are brought together and pressed the thickened ends in the form of a lenticular head 9 under pressure to the molten receiving side 7 of the bristle carrier until they assume the position shown in Figure 2, with a weak around each bristle bundle annular elevation 10 bi Idet. When using endless brush strands, the strand is cut to length after the joining process. Instead of the shown supply of the bristles 4 in the manner of bundles 3, larger or smaller groups of bristles 4 can be supplied in any desired configuration.

Figure 3 shows a single bristle bundle 11 in a conventional arrangement, the bristles 12 are anchored by means of a metal wire 13 in a hole of the brush head. Figure 4 shows that with the same bundle-like arrangement on the same FJäche the broken lines reproduced bristles 14 can be accommodated in addition, when the bristles are welded.

Figure 5 shows some possible configurations of the arrangement of the bristles. The brush head 1 has the bordered with the line 15 stocking surface. On this, in the handle 2 remote area 16, the bristles are single standing close to tight, so completely covered welded. A same flächideckende, but strip-shaped arrangement is provided in the edge regions 17 of the stocking area. On the other hand, in the central region delimited by line 18, the bristles are A; i bundled bundles 19, 20 and 21, wherein the front bundles have 19 circular shape, the middle bundle 20 rectangular shape and the handle-proximate rear bundle 21 oval shape.

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Claims (11)

Reason for claim 1. Toothbrush with a brush head and a handle-forming body made of plastic and bristles attached to the brush head made of plastic, characterized in that the body (1, 2) and bristles (4) made of the same plastic and are welded together, wherein the brush head is free of voids. 2. Toothbrush according to item 1, characterized in that the bristle receiving side (7) of the brush head (1) is flat and the bristles (4) are butt welded. 3. Toothbrush according to item 1 or 2, characterized in that the bristles (4) are welded by Berührungs loose heating to the brush head (1). 4. Toothbrush according to one of the items 1 to 3, characterized in that the brush head (1) and the bristles (4) made of polyester or '. Polyamide, preferably of polyamide 6.12 exist. q ο ζ. 9 7 7 -ί for A toothbrush according to any one of items 1 to 4, characterized in that the brush head (1) has a thickness of 2 to 4 mm. 6. Toothbrush according to one of the items 1 to 5, characterized in that the brush head (1) more than 3000 bristles (4) are attached. 7. Toothbrush according to one of the items 1 to 6, characterized in that the bristles (4) are welded in bundles or stand-alone on the brush head (1). 8. Toothbrush according to item 7, characterized in that individual standing bristles are areal welded to the brush head (1) eats. 9. Toothbrush according to item 7, characterized in that the individual standing bristles are arranged on partial surfaces of different contour and / or different distribution. 10. Toothbrush according to one of the items 1 to 9, characterized in that individual standing bristles flat arrangement and bundled together bristles are combined. 11. Toothbrush according to one of the items 7 to 10, characterized in that the bristles are arranged in the grifferen head region of the brush head stand-alone and flat, in the edge region stand-alone and strip-shaped and in the remaining region of the bristle head in the manner of bundles. For this 3 sheets of drawings 0 0 0 Λ P -> - ·: "1 j / -> L 0. b. ? 1 0 - ^:? // 1 (J (J